List of failings found at QA Hospital’s emergency department

Ellie Pilmoor

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DURING two inspection visits, the Care Quality Commission saw incidents which caused the A&E department at Queen Alexandra Hospital to be deemed inadequate. They were:

- a jumbulance being used to assess and treat patients because of on-going over-capacity in A&E.

- on February 22 and 23, South Central Ambulance Service (Scas) had 16 vehicles queueing to discharge patients at A&E. This accounted for one third of Scas’ fleet. This meant the response times for two life-threatening conditions had not been met including a crash on the M27 where a tent had to be used.

- Only 57 per cent of patients with a serious condition in A&E were triaged within the 15-minute target.

- on February 23, there were three occasions when staff were unable to say where their patient was in the emergency department or what treatment they needed next.

- on February 15, there had been a serious incident reported where a patient accommodated in a jumbulance had deteriorated into cardiac arrest. An investigation was started but feedback was not available to the CQC inspector.

- blood splatters were seen on the wall and floor of the resuscitation room.

- a member of medical staff did not remove their gloves after leaving a patients room. They removed items of medical equipment from a trolley in a communal area while still wearing the gloves. The patient had an infection condition.

- the emergency equipment supplies on a grab board were not sterile as the packaging had been pierced with the hooks holding supplies onto the board.

- On February 23, a patient’s ECG had to be re-done on transfer to the Acute Medical Unit as the one completed in the emergency department had been lost. The same patient also had to provide a second blood sample as the first had not been received by the lab.

- On February 22, a patient with a potentially serious brain injury that had been assessed in an ambulance was unaccounted for by the ambulance handover nurse. The patient had been urgently moved to the CT scanner.

- a patient admitted from a deliberate overdose, and who suffered with mental health issues, was not allowed to leave the Acute Medical Unit. This was not passed on to staff and she was allowed to leave in order to smoke.